No abstract

Physiological changes of walking rotation during developmentBackground: Feet rotation during walking is a frequent worrying motive. Most of the time, it corresponds to physiological conditions and variations within the normal range. Objective: Evaluate the factors involved in walking on healthy children, according to physical examination performed by Staheli method and its correlation with symptoms. Method: Evaluation of 610 healthy children at Santiago -Chile; 10 cases were excluded due to previous orthopedic pathology. A questionnaire was applied, which included perinatal factors, previous pathologies and lower limb related symptoms. An anthropometric evaluation and specific physical examination of lower limb rotations was also performed. The data was statistically analysed. Results: 58% of cases presented neutral walking, 23% of children had convergent walking and 19% presented divergent walking. There is a direct relationship between age and type of walking, being convergent walking most frequent at lower ages, due to bigger hip anteversion and greater internal tibial torsion. The plane foot and metatarsus adductus do not influence lower limb rotation. Obese children presented divergent walking most frequently. There are no significant differences in terms of lower limb pain and walking alterations. Conclusions: Walking has a known natural history, with a wide normality range and most of the time, it solves spontaneously without the need of specific therapy.

Variability in measurement of acetabular index Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is a spectrum of diseases ranging from frank dislocation of the hip to mild acetabular dysplasia. DDH screening for detection is performed routinely in our country using pelvic x-ray at 3 months of age. The radiographic measured acetabular index is used to evaluate the dysplastic hip, at initial presentation and during follow-up. Objective: Evaluation of the intra-and inter-observer variability, among medical professionals, when measuring acetabular index. Methods: Four reviewers (a children orthopedic surgeon, a general practitioner, a pediatrician and a radiologist) performed acetabular index measurement in 100 radiographs (200 hips), on three occasions, separated each by one month (600 total measurements). An independent observer evaluated the measurement reproducibility. The intra-class correlation coefficient to determine significant differences was used. Results: The intra-observer variability was less than the inter-observer variability. The intra-observer variability was similar among the different assessors, ± 1.5 degrees. The inter-observer variability was ± 3.4 degrees. Conclusions: A high concordance among measurements was reported, evidencing a high reproducibility of the acetabular index; this index is a reliable method for the diagnosis and follow-up of acetabular dysplasia.